Great we have 2 Reports of this Event by Members

VMMA Official Visit to Aurora Lodge No. 35 at Inglewood and General Meeting

Saturday 21st March 2009

Report by Pedro                                                                Return to Reports 2009 Index

Not unusually VMMA members were out and about yet again this weekend. This time we conducted a general meeting at the Riverside Motel in Bridgewater on the Saturday afternoon and then made an official visit to the Aurora Lodge (just 8 kms up the road in Inglewood) on Saturday night.

 

 

Look at the brother on the right, has Pedro set a trend?

 

Dean and his merry band met in Melbourne at 10 AM, while the Baron met me in Bendigo prior to our final short (40km) leg to Bridgewater. On arrival we were greeted warmly (quite natural and expected I might add) from our fellow members who had already taken their positions under the motel veranda and were well on their way to telling tall stories of numerous motorcycling conquests and adventures. Well, some were anyway! The general meeting kicked off at about 3 and we are all done soon after 4. The post meeting refreshments and light hearted banter lasted for a further 90 enjoyable minutes until it came time to scrub up for Lodge. 

 

Our official visit to Aurora Lodge was at the express invitation of the Master, V.W.Bro. Ken Baker (VMMA member) who we installed into the Masters chair in October 2008.

 

Our visit also coincided with the 50th annual official visit from the Lodge of Euclid (Melbourne).

 

On arrival we were surprised to see the supper room nearly full with masons and their ladies. I imagined at this stage that we were in for a good night – I was not disappointed.

 

We entered the Lodge around 8pm and after the Euclid brethren entered the Aurora Master closed the Lodge. The ladies and other guests entered and we were presented with a talk of a recent police drug operation in Croydon from W.Bro. Greg McCoy (Victoria Police) from Lodge of Euclid.

 

 

Pedro addressing everyone in the south.

 

At the completion of the very interesting presentation we all (90 odd people) retired to the south to squeeze in to the supper room.

 

VMMA members in attendance were: David Wells, Dean Lugton, Dennis & Anita Setterfield, Bob & Jean Nicholls, Kenneth and Jenny O’Sullivan, Mal Kidd, David & Viv Cash, Gary Power, Mal Pethybridge, Pedro, and the Red Baron.

 

After the usual toasts Worshipful Master Ken invited us to give a talk on the VMMA. Dean volunteered me to speak and as usual I provided information about our aims, operations and achievements. Dean then followed up with some more specific information on recent events such as the November 2008 Cystic Fibrosis ride.

 

Our talk was well received in the main as gauged by the applause from those assembled.

 

Jean felt she was back in the mother land!!!!!

 

Harmony was then provided by a bagpiper – I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my hearing aid because the sound echoed loudly in the small supper room.

 

Jean was kept busy selling VMMA merchandise to the guests: it appears our new VMMA pens at $5 were fairly popular.

 

A raffle was then circulated and try as we might only one VMMA member received a prize. However we were the eventual winners as the Master very generously donated the raffle prize money ($270) to us for disbursement to charity.

 

Jean and Bob going for it with the piper!!!!!

 

The festivities of the evening ended around 11pm and we rode back to the motel to continue our socialising.

 

On Sunday morning we returned to Inglewood to have morning tea at the Masonic Centre around 10am, prior to the Lodge of Euclid visitors returning for a BBQ lunch starting at 11am.

 

We said our goodbyes to Dave & Viv who were heading to Echuca and the remainder of us grouped together to ride back to the Calder highway and head south to our various homes.

 

Ciao Pedro